That's pretty much what's happening. Sammael has already been labeled weak in the power, Lanfear sent him to attack Rand and in the image we see, Rand is toying with a dark strands of the power. His protection from the madness perhaps? From a book perspective the show suffers from lack of time. Hence the reduction of numericals to eight. Considering what has been given by Sony/Amazon, I actually think some of the decisions work.

3978 was the Earth date on Taylor's ship in the original movie. Whilst clearly not caring about continuity, Zira's recollection of something as specific as the date could be argued away as an unreliable narrator due to the effect of the "truth serum". The Presidents statement could either be continuity error, or an effect of the time dilation associated with a reversal in time. In that movie making era, continuity wasn't highly prized.